


How Palpatine Developed his Permanent Twitch

by Queen_Kit



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Childhood, Father-Son Relationship, GFY, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 19:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5639914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Kit/pseuds/Queen_Kit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darth Vader seeks to teach his son the ways of the Dark Side and get back at his master.  He might be less successful on the first part of that than he realizes</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Palpatine Developed his Permanent Twitch

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [How Palpatine Developed His Permanent Twitch](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/166795) by QueenKit. 



> Okay. Given my current rediscovery of Star Wars fanfiction in general I’ve decided the first story I’m going to go over and try to fix up is an original from May 2008. Hopefully I haven’t killed it with the editing, it’s an interesting experiment.  
> Original Version posted on ffn (See link above) under the same title and slightly more crackish...

Eight years ago Darth Vader had lost his wife, his limbs, and – so he thought – the unborn child that his wife had carried within her.  That presumption had been changed when chance, and perhaps the force, had caused him to return to a plant he would rather have forgotten – Tatooine.  Its hellish sands and unrelenting twin suns had not been the sight he wanted to see after a faulty hyper drive forced him to land his ship for repairs.

The anger that had filled him at the sight had been enough to cause everyone to shrink away from him in terror.  Then he felt it, a light in the force, and he stalked away without a word to hunt down the source and destroy yet another Jedi before they had a chance to become a threat.  It had been simplicity itself to track the bright light, impossibility to destroy it.

By the force the child looked just like him, his child had survived.  It took little effort to command the child to sleep, even less to destroy the farm and “family” with which he lived.  Taking the child back to his ship, Vader felt happy for the first time he recalled.  He buried it firmly.

That did not last.  The child had dead Anakin Skywalker’s sense of human and ingenuity.  He could not conceal his pleasure.  They would give Lord Sidius hell.  All in the name of the dark side.

\----

When they arrived on the Emperor’s personal vessel Vader discovered that he hardly knew what to do with himself.  Somehow he was not quite the Deadly Sith that had left on his Emperor’s mission only six months ago.  The boy, his child, _Luke_ seemed to have changed him.  There was more humor in him, his scarred face attempting to twist into a smile under the black mask.

That would have to stop.  The boy would learn to be evil.  Torture was a good place to start.  He placed a bag containing several water balloons into his son’s hands – ignoring the laughter in his head that sounded suspiciously un-sith-like and the voice that told him that this was _not_ true evil.

“Go now.  Follow Master Sidious and learn the ways of the Sith.”

Luke nodded solemnly, despite his confusion at the parting gift and trotted off for his lesson with the Emperor.  He was bored, a whole starship to explore and he was stuck following the Emperor on his rounds of Duty.  His father had told him to torture someone, he said torture was something like the pranks he used to play on Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, but how would water balloons help him be powerful and evil like his father before him?

In the end it didn’t take him long to find out.  The emperor was fond of using lightning to torture people.  It didn’t look like a fun prank to Luke, it looked like it hurt.  It made him angry to see all of those people getting hurt and nothing bad seeming to happen to the Emperor.  A frown appeared on his face that would do his father proud.  Luke was going to torture the Emperor and see if he thought that it was so good after that.

Thinking on it… that meant that things wouldn’t be boring anymore either.

The next time he saw the emperor preparing to electrocute some hapless officer with the force, Luke took action.  It was easier than he thought to use his anger as his father had directed him to and raise a water balloon over the wrinkly old man’s head, causing it to burst at just the right moment and –

Luke was overcome with glee as Palpatine screamed, turning to look for the assailant that would dare drench him at such a time.

"You did that didn't you, you little brat!" Palpatine hissed eyes full of fury.

The Emperor looked even angrier than his father did sometimes, it scared look.  Fear too was path to the dark side and Luke learned quickly.  He wasn’t taking the blame on this.

“I did nothing, Emperor.” Luke solemnly replied, “It was him.” He pointed at the first storm trooper he saw.  Shifting the blame to an innocent party to preserve himself, his father would be so proud.

As Palpatine turned his wrath onto this new victim Luke dropped another balloon.

The man whipped around again, snarling "I know that one was you, _Skywalker._ "

"No, it was him!" Luke almost panicked before he noticed another convenient scapegoat standing to the emperor’s right.

Palpatine was again full of anger, sparks of electricity gathering on his fingertips. Luke readied another balloon and quickly smothered a giggle.

The child had hardly noticed when his tool in the force turned from anger to joy.  Darth watched it all on the ship’s vid-feeds and hardly cared when he noticed the error.  It was worth it when days later, even when the child was not near his master, Vader saw the man flinch just a little before that lightning flew through the air.

It took only another month’s time for the Sith Lord to become paranoid, flinching at the barest hint of a popping noise.  If one looked closely it was noticeable that he had developed permanent twitching in his hands, caused by nerve damage from his own lightning.

Darth had never been so proud of another being in his life.  Luke had never enjoyed himself this much ever.

Together one day, they might truly rule the Empire together…  As father and Son.


End file.
